‘He Is Allowed A Blip’ – Aston Villa Star Defended By Ex-Villa Man | OneFootball

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Former Aston Villa hitman Gabby Agbonlahor has insisted that Villans’ striker Ollie Watkins is allowed to have a bad run of form, and is sure that him not getting selected for the current England team will hit him.

After impressing at Brentford, the forward was picked up by the Birmingham-based club five years ago.

Watkins has been a stellar presence at Villa Park since he joined in 2020, scoring 88 goals and providing 42 assists in 239 games, form which saw Arsenal look at a move for him in the winter transfer window earlier this year.

The striker has scored 61 goals in his last four seasons combined, but in the current campaign, he has managed only one goal in eleven games.

Agbonlahor is fully convinced that it is just a bad run of form for Watkins and he believes that the 29-year-old will find his shooting boots again soon.

“It looks at the moment to me that, Ollie Watkins, when he is in front of the goal, is snatching at chances; he is missing chances that last season he would have scored”, he said on talkSPORT (13th November, 8:56).

 “So, I do think that it is a little blip, but he will come good.

“Because you don’t score, four seasons in a row, double figures in the Premier League, getting into the England squad, scoring in the Euros, big goal against the Netherlands, to now not being able to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Thomas Tuchel did not call Watkins up for England during this month’s international break and Agbonlahor feels that it will fire him up to perform well to get selected in the World Cup squad.

Agbonlahor, though, made it clear that one blip should be allowed for Watkins, given how good he has been performing since he has been at Villa Park.

“He is getting chances, he is snatching at them, he is not finishing clinically like he was in previous seasons.

“But, he is allowed a blip; he has been fantastic for Aston Villa and I am sure he will [make a comeback].

“He is always available and also not being called to this England squad, when there is only Harry Kane available, would have hit him.

“And he will say to himself, ‘you know what, I need to do better, because I want to go the World Cup.’”

Watkins was targeted by Manchester United in the summer transfer window, but Villa stuck to their strictly not for sale policy for the England forward.